


ashes still burn

by angstlairde



Series: ashes still burn [1]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, But hopeful ish, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, Only by a bit, Past Relationship(s), Post - Chip Arc, Post - Order 66, Still Angsty, still sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 11:10:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15556410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstlairde/pseuds/angstlairde
Summary: Rex knows she's not gonna like seeing him, but he needs her to.





	ashes still burn

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the angst-fest lads

The door opens and Rex finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun, safety off, and set to kill. Just behind the blaster, holding it steady between his eyes, is Rabe, stone-faced.  

"We're not here to kill you," Rex says, hands up in surrender.

Rabe tilts her head, studying him, reminding him very much of Eirtae.

 "Just to 'ask me some questions,' I assume," she says, her voice hard. Rex can't remember the last time her voice hadn't been hard.

"No," he replied. "But we are here to ask you for help."

Rabe scoffs, even as she lowers her blaster but remains rooted in the doorway. 

"What, did you miss when you fired at your Jedi?" She asks bitterly.

"No," Rex said, harsher than he means it to come out. He huffs and slices a hand through the air. "We had our chips removed."

"Before, or after Fives was murdered?" 

Rex snaps.

"He was right, alright?! You don't think I'm sorry? You don't think I regret his death, every single day? Look, I'm sorry, Rabe, alright? I'm really fucking sorry!"

Rabe's expression doesn't change.

"Sorry won't bring him back. "

 

* * *

Rabe lets them in.

It turns out them is Jesse, Kix, Rex, and Ahsoka, of all people, and she isn't looking too good.

"What happened?" She asks, helping Ahsoka to a couch. Ahsoka looks pale, with bags under her eyes, thin, and looking generally unwell.

"A lot of skrag," she answers shortly, accepting a glass of water eagerly. Rabe might have a bone to pick with the clones, but Ahsoka was still her friend. (So were the boys, but still - she could be angry at them.) "Chipped clones put up a hell of a fight, not to mention searching for any - any Jedi that are out there." The Togruta shook her head. "I - I tried to make it back to Coruscant, but I - I -" she stops, looking away. Rabe touches Ahsoka's shoulder lightly, and looks to the other clones.

"What about you? Why come here?"

 Rex stands up, and Kix pulls him back down.

"We don't want to stay long," Rex tells her. "We don't even have to stay the night. We just needed a place to - stop running, just for a moment." 

Rabe rolled her eyes as she pulls extra pillows and sheets from a closet and drops them next to the furniture.

"You're staying the night. We'll talk about it in the morning. Ahsoka, I have an extra bed for you." 

She leaves with an extra sheet snapping around her ankles. 

.....

 

_"So." Fives draws the word out as he brushes his fingers along Rabe's spine. She giggles, and blows a strand of hair off her face._

  _"So, what?" She asks, scratching lightly at the nape of his neck._

  _"I was thinking," he begins, and Rabe can't help a "that must've been hard," before he continues with, "I can take a two-week leave of absence. I thought we could take a vacation after this next mission. General Skywalker and these two Jedi sisters, which, I didn't even know that was possible," Fives rambles. "Jedi sisters, who knew right?"_

  _Rabe doesn't realize she is smiling so widely until he points it out._

  _"Why're you smilin'? I thought you didn't like it when I went away."_

  _She smiles wider and pushes up to kiss him._

  _"Because I love you."_

_Fives' confused, yet happy smile makes her feel a surge of fond adoration._

_"Well, I love you, too. Anyways, so I thought we could go..."_

  

Rabe wakes alone and in the dark, cheeks wet with tears. They should have been able to go on vacation, like he wanted. They should have been able to go back to Naboo, use Padme's lake house like she said they could. They never even got the chance. 

Instead, when she answered the door expecting Fives, all she recieved was an apology from Rex, Fives' bucket, and more grief than she knew what to do with.

Rabe sits up, tosses her sheets off, wraps her robe around herself and pads softly out of her room. She passes the room where Ahsoka slept, knocked out as soon as her head hit the pillow, and slips past the sleeping clones in the living room, except - except Rex isn't there. His silhouette stands on the balcony of the living room window, and after getting two glasses of water, Rabe meets him there, the duracrete floor cold against her bare feet.

"'M sorry, I couldn't sleep," Rex says as soon as she's next to him.

"Stop apologizing," she says, handing him the second glass. "I couldn't either."

"He wouldn't shut up about as soon as the mission was over, he was gonna take you to Naboo," Rex says after a moment.

Rabe stays silent, staring out at the horizon, swallows down impending tears, and says,

"I didn't know clones could take a leave if absence."

"Most can't. Fives was a special case. He deserved a vacation."

"You all did," Rave replies after a moment.

 Silence falls over the two of them, and then Rex inhales to speak, and Rabe knows exactly what he's planning on saying, and she doesn't want to hear it again.

"I said stop apologizing. I've been angry, at you, but it took me too long to realize I was angry at the wrong person."

Rex is staring at her, and she meets his gaze, eyes burning. 

"I'm sorry. I held it against you when I should have been angry at Palpatine." She spits his name out, and sets her glass down on the railing, crossing her arms against herself like she was cold. Rabe shudders and looks away. 

"It's not your fault, Rex. Stop blaming yourself." 

Rex places a hesitant hand on her shoulder, then his left on her right shoulder and gently turns her to face him.

"We've both been angry at the wrong people." He points with his head back inside. "Once I get Ahsoka somewhere safe, I'm fighting back against Palpatine. I want your help."

Rabe allows herself a grim smile and tells him, 

"I'll be there. All three of us."

Dawn breaks over the horizon, and Rabe feels like someone new - someone angry, and grieving, and ready to fight back, and she knew her sisters would be there every step of the way.

"We fight back for Fives."

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I probably killed all y'all and i have zero (0) regrets about it


End file.
